My Land Rover Projects - Discovery & Defender 90

This is a discussion on My Land Rover Projects - Discovery & Defender 90 within 4x4 Vehicles, part of the 4x4 & Off-Roading category; Hope you are all doing well... thought will share some of the new projects I am getting my hands into ...

Hope you are all doing well... thought will share some of the new projects I am getting my hands into lately.

In the past few years, I have shared my adventures with all of you while restoring a Series 1 Land Rover, then stepping into a Series 3, followed by a Defender 110 & now getting into a Discovery 1 & a Defender 90. Of course, I also did the Willys CJ3B somewhere in the early days.

As you can see, I suffer from the worst form of 'see a car in distress, let's sink my money syndrome'... but there is something about these finished vehicles that keeps me going. Maybe it is the challenge of bringing them back from the brink, maybe it is the research element or maybe it is the sheer sweat & toil... whatever it is, it is definitely fulfilling.

As part of my latest endeavors, I have acquired a 1998 Discovery 300 Tdi with an automatic transmission. Having done the Series & Defenders, I wanted to undertake something that could seat my family in a bit more of comfort. While my 1 year old son & 6 year old daughter have taken to Land Rovers like fish to water, I still feel the responsibility of tucking them into a seat belt once in a while. Hence thought let's also do this project & see how it all works out.

My last few projects are still underway. The Series 3 has now gone into a paintshop. I last month imported a Fairy Overdrive for it, after much pondering & haggling over price. It was an expensive proposition, but I am fairly excited on the prospect of the end product- once I have everything sorted with this 109.

And of course, i have now managed to take a massive step forward in my off-road car collection bit, by finding a Defender 90- the most popular off-road vehicle Land Rover has produced till date. The search hasn't been easy- it has taken me a few years & lots of calls to get this old girl. And by looking at her, one possibly may wonder why there is so much of fuss over her. She has been abused in an organge farm, I am told, for years. And it shows in her current condition. Maybe her last owner hadn't serviced her since the past 5 years!

In terms of priorities, I have started to give all my attention to the Discovery. We started off with the most critical bit- the engine- last fortnight. When I picked the vehicle in October, I could see it getting heated even in the 5 kms that I test drove it. Reasons could vary from a leaking radiator to fan problems to transmission issues to even engine challenges. So, I had to swallow the bitter pill & decide whether I was going to go for it. Go for it I did... paid cash to the seller, had it loaded on a truck & had it on my way to Bangalore the same day...

Having reached the garage the following fortnight, we opened the engine up... only to discovery a horribly treated vehicle. The pistons had almost siezed! So we had to go for a complete engine rebuild. It was in a way good for me, as I anyways wanted to strip everything & redo in this vehicle. And there is nothing better than to start with the engine & gearbox.

In days to come, I will share with you the story of this Discovery restoration. Watch this space for more details...

I have now ordered a frighteningly large number of engine parts from a Land Rover dealership in the UK. We now have to sit tight for all that to arrive, before we embark on our next steps. Of course, there is a bit of nervousness about the whole thing- hope we are able to fit everything back to its original configuration & not mess it up

My next big ambition is to import a gearbox / transferbox from Ashcroft Transmission in the UK. These chaps are very expensive, but seemingly the best gearbox re-manufacturers in the Land Rover world. If I can afford to get one of their ZF4HP22 gearboxes which fits into these Discoverys, along with the LT230 transferboxes, my life will be made. Maybe we will wait a few months before getting the money to spend on it. By then the engine work would've finished, and we can afford to take a few test drives to figure out what exactly is wrong beyond the engine.

Once these two things are out of the way, possibly I will turn my attention to the suspension- replace all bushes with Polyeurathane ones, put performance coils & springs, redo the roll bars etc & get the vehicle to drive straight.

Next will possibly be exhaust system. Get a stainless steel one imported? Maybe not... too expensive!

I have already ordered many ancillary parts- ranging from a new Turbo, to a new intercooler, starter motor, alternator etc. Still need to get a radiator next.

Once all mechanicals are out of our way, we will start on electricals & body work. I intend to put Discovery 2 seats on this... they were upgraded by 2004- so will be more comfortable to sit in. Have already spoken to someone to source those too.

So, all in all, a lot of work is underway on this Discovery. Will post more details, as I start working on the engine once we receive the parts by next week. Wish me luck to get this done successfully!

Great work Abhishek, I am hooked onto this thread to see the progress. Ashcroft is indeed the best and most renowned in LR world, I hope you gather enough money to plunge it in. I am based in Coventry in UK and will be glad to be of any help if you need!

Congrats Abhishek. I am amazed to see your passion about restoring LRs and also to see that you have brought them upto factory like condition. I am hooked to your work progress for the current restorations and hope to see many more in the time to come.

Some more progress to report. All parts that I spoke of in my earlier update have now been fitted into the engine & it's overhaul is now complete. Not sure if I reported, but when we opened it up, we found the pistons had siezed... so it anyways required a thorough overhauling.

Here are some pictures of the work carried out. I also have a few videos of the engine running, when it was started day before. It sounds sweet

I am happy to report progress on the Land Rover Discovery Project. Posting some pictures of the almost finished vehicle. We have been working on this unabated since Sept last year. 6 months into the project, the Land Rover came home for a few weeks of trial before we take the final plunge into painting it & doing some modification to the headlights.

Thought I should post some pictures of how it has started to look. As always, keen to get your comments...

In days to come, I will start to share details of all the work that went into the background....

What we haven't done, deliberately, is to touch the gearbox- though this was part of the original plan. The ZF automatic gearbox & transfercase is working flawlessly, so there was no sense in wasting a few hundred thousand on this expensive piece of machinery. Will keep an eye on its performance in the next few months & then take a call.

The amount of patience, dedication and resources that you have for such restorations is out of this world Abhishek.

Further, it would be nice if you could post natural pictures of the vehicle so that they give an idea of what it actually looks like. These yellow tinted pictures make it difficult gauge the actually quality of work that has been done.

Would you be willing to show me your Disco in person once you are done restoring it fully?
I would love to take a look at it from close quarters.

The amount of patience, dedication and resources that you have for such restorations is out of this world Abhishek.

Further, it would be nice if you could post natural pictures of the vehicle so that they give an idea of what it actually looks like. These yellow tinted pictures make it difficult gauge the actually quality of work that has been done.

Would you be willing to show me your Disco in person once you are done restoring it fully?
I would love to take a look at it from close quarters.

You are most welcome to come & have a look anytime, Dev... I stay in Bannerghatta Road- not sure where in Bangalore you are based out of.